>The second article I sold them was on hexaflexagons. They had been invented by a group of graduate students at Princeton, including, of all people, Richard Feynman.
>Fascinating.
Feynmann's interest in flexagons, specifically "hexahexaflexagons," is described in James Gleick's biography of Feynmann, "Genius".
I enjoyed these letters to the editor, published in Scientific American in March and May of 1957, in response to Gardner's piece on flexagons. The first is reprinted in Gleick's book, where I first encountered it.
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SIRS:
I was quite taken with the article entitled "Flexagons" in your December issue. It took us only six or seven hours to paste the hexahexaflexagon together in the proper configuration. Since then it has been a source of continuing wonder. but we have a problem. This morning one of our fellows was sitting flexing the hexahexaflexagon idly when the tip of his necktie became caught in the folds. With each successive flex, more of his tie vanished into the flexagon. With the sixth flexing he disappeared entirely."
We have been flexing the thing madly, and can find no trace of him, but we have located a sixteenth configuration of the hexahexaflexagon.
Here is our question: Does his widow drag workmen's compensation for the duration of his absence, or can we have him declared legally dead immediately? We await your advice.
Neil Uptegrove
Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Inc.
Clifton, N.J.
SIRS:
The letter in the March issue of your magazine complaining of the disappearance of a fellow from the Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories "down" a hexahexaflexagon, has solved a mystery for us.
One day, while idly flexing our latest hexahexaflexagon, we were confounded to find that it was producing a strip of multicoloured material. Further flexing of the hexahexaflexagon finally disgorged a gum-chewing stranger.
Unfortunately he was in a weak state and, owing to an apparent loss of memory, unable to give any account of how he came to be with us. His health has now been restored on our national diet of porridge, haggis and whiskey, and he has become quite a pet around the department, answering to the name of Eccles.
Our problem is, should we now return him and, if so, by what method? Unfortunately Eccles now cringes at the very sight of a hexahexaflexagon and absolutely refuses to "flex".
Robert M. Hill
The Royal Institute of Science and Technology
Glasgow, Scotland
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(Letters copied from here:
http://www.f.kth.se/~f96-lla/math.html )
Just try to find something with the same innocent humor and spirit of fun in today's politicized Scientific American.
Sad but true, I have been a reader since 1960 (about) I used to keep all the magazines, but of course the liberal cr*p that they publish sickens me. Now you can search the archives on the net, but I don't subscribe to the net service. I think every year about dumping the hardcopy subscription but I still find a few articles to be worth it. (But never the articles on global warming or social problems, they have the "Vision of the Anoited".)I do believe I remember the repartee you just posted. Thanks.
I have read "Genius" but the hexaflexagon subject slipped my memory. I never tire of articles by or about Richard Feynman.